Geography

People

Population : 21,5 millions (2006)

Language(s) : Arabic

Religions : Islam

Economy

>More than half of the working population works in agriculture and the culture is essentially one of food production. The country’s main exports are coffee and cotton. These sectors are heavily dependant on climatic conditions. Livestock farming is also widely practised.
>Oil, which was discovered in 1983, is an important source of income for the country.
>The main industrial activity is the production of consumer goods for the domestic market.
>Yemen’s economic development has been hampered by its political unrest and the civil war at the beginning of the 1990s.

History

>From the 15th to the 2nd century B.C., the kingdoms of Maan, Saba, Qataban, Aoussane and Hadramout succeed each other.
>The 8th century B.C.: The construction of the dike of Marib allows for irrigation of the land.
>The 4th century A.D.: The sovereign Himyarite Shamir Yuharish unifies the country.
>The 6th century A.D.: Yemen, under Ethiopian power, passes to Persian power from 571.
>630 : End of Persian domination and beginning of the Islamization. From 633, Yemen becomes a province of the Arabian-Muslim Empire.
>From 9th century A.D.: Proclamation of the imamat Zaydite by Yahia Ben Hussein. He stays in power until the middle of the 19th century.
>1538 : The Ottomans occupy the country until 1635. They are expelled by Zaydites who take Aden as the capital.
>1839 : The British occupy Aden.
>1850 : The Ottomans once again occupy the country and install a governor in Sanaa in 1872.
>1857: The British colonize the South of the country. The Ottomans and the English define their respective territories in 1905
>1911 : The Turks sign an agreement by which they recognize the sovereign power of the imam Yahia in the area of the Yemen which they occupy.
>1918 : Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Yemen achieves independence. Aden and the provinces of the South stay under British control.
>1948 : The imam Yahia is murdered and his son, Ahmed, succeeds him, but he himself becomes the victim of an attempt in 1961.
>1962 : Military coup d'état. The Arab Republic of Yemen is declared in the North, where a civil war begins, between the royalists and the republicans. In the South, the Popular Socialist Party is created.
>1967 : Independence of southern Yemen, which becomes the Democratic and Popular Republic of the Yemen.
> 1970: In Northern Yemen, the republicans take control and set up a government which inaugurates one year of reconciliation.
>1972 : War between the North and the South but peace agreements foresee the reunification of Yemen. In 1979, a second conflict erupts, followed by a new agreement of unification.
>1990 : Reunification. Ali Abd-Allah Saleh becomes President of the Republic of the Yemen.
>1991 : Adoption by referendum of a Constitution.
>1993 : First general election open to all voters.
>1994 : Confrontation between the army and the separatists of the South, who are finally beaten. Ali Abd-Allah Saleh is re-elected to the presidency of a unified Yemen. He goes on to be re-elected once more in 1999.